BrightEdge: ChatGPT's Black Friday citations still favor dated press releases
At Best Buy, dated press releases draw 71.7% of ChatGPT’s Black Friday citations versus 10.5% for the retailer’s current store hub page, per BrightEdge; Home Depot splits a similar 63.1% to 13.3%. BrightEdge tracked 13,915 holiday prompts against ChatGPT across six major US retailers from June to August 2026, and found that, weighted across all six, about 11% of cited holiday pages carry a year that has already passed — nothing ages a dated press release out of the citation pool, so it stays there until the retailer replaces it. Black Friday falls on November 27 this year.
Why it matters: A retailer's own outdated press release can out-cite its live, correct seasonal page in ChatGPT's answers, which means seasonal pages need updating before peak demand, not just published once and left.
The record: ChatGPTBrightEdge
Posted to the wire October 8, 2026. Edited by Joe Balewski.